March 2026 - Feature Release - The Fallen Edition
This month's feature release for the Fallen sees me going for "Gravity", 2020's third album from swedish psych-doomers "Saturnalia Temple". Personally I think 2020 was a great year for metal with some of my modern favourites coming out during that pandemic-riddled annum and "Gravity" sits well up there with great records from the likes of Oranssi Pazuzu, MSW, Demoniac and Paysage d'Hiver. Give it a listen and let us know what you think either below or in review form.
https://metal.academy/releases/17355
Never heard of these boys before, but an early listen through of this yesterday has certainly piqued my interest. Not as straight forward a doom/stoner act as I had expected and so will look forwards to getting something into a review for this one.
Never heard of these boys before, but an early listen through of this yesterday has certainly piqued my interest. Not as straight forward a doom/stoner act as I had expected and so will look forwards to getting something into a review for this one.
I haven't heard these guys yet either but they sound interesting so I'm penciling them in.
My review from the time of release:
Saturnalia Temple have been a favourite of mine for some time now. Their psych-drenched doom metal is as uncompromising as it is trippy and it is early days yet, but this may well be their best album so far. Recorded completely on analogue equipment, Gravity is a throwback to the heady days of late '60s / early '70s psych rock.
First track proper, after a short intro, is the eponymous Saturnalia Temple which, if you didn't know better, you would swear was a psych-doom song from about 1968. I can't really explain why, but I get a kind of doom Velvet Underground vibe from this track. Next is the nine minutes of organ-soaked fuzzy doom, Gravity, with it's cracked and croaky vocals, which suggests that man is pulled down by his failings like a huge mass exerting it's pull on his soul and, despite the warmness of the guitar sound, it feels like an ominous and threatening track. The repetitive, ascerbic Elyzian Fields with it's black metal-style vocals is a kinetic ending to side one.
Between Two Worlds begins side two and, after a chaotic intro, kicks into gear and hurtles along like a long lost Hawkwind track from their Space Ritual days with echoing vocals Bob Calvert would be proud of. The distorted hyper-fuzzy oscillations and cavernous, disembodied clean vocals of Bitter Taste are a little disorientating, particularly on headphones and could well be some kind of sonic experiment on the human brain! Oannes also features the same vocal style and a similarly repetitively hypnotic guitar sound as Bitter Taste, albeit with a warmer, more bassy tone and Alpha Drakonis is basically an ambient outro to end the album as it started.
Once more Saturnalia Temple prove they are one of a kind and are not content to plough the same doom metal furrow as the majority of their contemporaries. Gravity has a cataclysmically reverberating bottom end and properly disconcerting vocals to give the listener the impression of having heard something genuinely either profound or blasphemous. More successfuly evokes the imagery and atmosphere of HP Lovecraft than any number of albums that deliberately set out to. Original, unsettling and ultimately, an extremely satisfying doom metal record.
4.5/5
As I listen to Gravity, I sense that there is a history of music represented here that I am not all that close too. The heavy-psych elements to Saturnalia Temple’s sound suggest to me at least one foot in the heady days of the 70’s and beyond, but at the same time I get a lot of modern Darkthrone in the sound as well. Add to this, aesthetic the creeping darkness of black metal that seeps into the occasional track and before I knew it, I was completely in love with this month’s feature release for The Fallen clan. In my weed smoking days (long, long since done with), I would have enjoyed Gravity on a whole different level, I am sure. It feels like a record that can, with the right tools deployed, unlock outer dimensions of the listener’s inner consciousness, if you know what I mean.
This transcendental potential is by no means wasted when listened to in an entirely clean and sober headspace mind. Using simple repetition and atmospheres, alongside a near-constant menacing rumble of bottom-end loaded bass, Saturnalia Temple make for an otherworldly experience without the need for chemical assistance. The whole album sounds a bit clunky to me, but this is part of its natural charm and is what helps keep it in the higher echelons of the appeal stakes. I can listen to the damaged soundtrack to a thousand sci-fi horror movies that is Elyzian Fields all day long, and the droning indulgence of Between the Worlds right after it help make the mid-point of the record particularly strong for me.
Although Gravity has many recognisable traits to it, I cannot help but feel that the album feels like an introduction to something new. Even though many if not all its roots are found in the past, somehow there is still an element of there being an aberration present in many regards. As the tracks pass by, they carve sigil like etchings into my brain, meaning the memorability factor is high. High enough in fact for me to be able to enjoy the record as both background music as well as a more critical listening session. Great find.
4.5/5